Alabama Ethics Reform

Gov. Bob Riley has a chance to pull one more rabbit out of his hat before he rides into the sunset. And it's a pretty big rabbit. It's a leopard. Set in its ways.

With spots that need to be bleached.

You go, Guv. If you can remove those spots of corruption, not only will your legacy as a game-changing governor be intact, but your successor, Dr. Robert Bentley, will also get credit as an ethics reformer and reap the benefits of painting his legacy on a very clean canvas.

More importantly, a special session on ethics reform gives Alabama a chance to go from worst to first on an issue of national importance in the blink of an aye. Win, win, win.

Can the state's new majority party deliver? It's time to put up or shut up.

Today's Press-Register editorial:

A golden chance to end corruption

BY CALLING a special session on ethics reform, Gov. Bob Riley has set in motion a process that could revolutionize the way government is conducted in the Alabama Legislature.

The governor and the new Republican majority have nothing to lose and everything to gain by attacking the issue with gusto and pressing for no less than the toughest ethics laws in the country. Gov.-elect Robert Bentley should stand shoulder to shoulder with them to demonstrate his blessing.

If they are successful, newly elected Republicans will accomplish what their colleagues have promised, but failed to deliver, for years: that they would clean up corruption in Montgomery. Indeed, this is what voters elected them to do after being disgusted by federal bribery indictments earlier this fall.

If the reforms become law, Gov. Riley will be viewed as a leader who reached out and seized an opportunity to change Alabama politics for the better before handing over the reins of office.

Starting next Wednesday, lawmakers will be asked to consider a handful of proposals. Among them: stricter limits on what lobbyists can spend on public officials and public employees, full disclosure of such expenditures, subpoena power for the state Ethics Commission and a ban on money transfers between political action committees.

Until spending by lobbyists is reined in and made more transparent, Alabama will continue to be ruled by the special interests. As things stand now, there's no limit on what lobbyists can spend on hospitality for legislators. And until the tab adds up to more than $250 a day per person, the giveaways don't have to be reported at all.

We liked the governor's original idea, which was that lobbyists should be barred from buying a legislator anything more than a cup of coffee, but it's understandable that he and lawmakers probably will settle on a slightly higher limit of $25 a day. Whatever dollars are spent should have to be disclosed immediately and online.

Next, lawmakers should agree to empower the state Ethics Commission to issue subpoenas, finally giving the agency some real teeth. Subpoena power would allow ethics officials to get at the truth more quickly and investigate the kind of corruption that allegedly occurred during the last legislative session.

Also, eliminating PAC-to-PAC transfers will weld shut the legal pipeline for bribes by the special interests. No longer will they be able to hide contributions to a particular candidate by sending money through a series of PACs.

Next week, by tackling ethics reform, legislators will get the chance to strip the power from special-interest groups such as the Alabama Education Association and return it to the people, where it belongs. This could be the most important work they ever do.